Breaking news: nearly half of Australian mums back at work before their youngest turns one

A report in The Australian today says that almost half of all mums in two-parent families are back at work before their youngest child turns one.

Is this true for you?

Is this why it is impossible to find a child care place for kids aged 0-2?

The story, written by George Megalogenis and Sophie Gosper, also says almost all the mothers who went back to work in this period took part-time jobs with fewer than 25 working hours a week.

You can read the full piece here but you need a subscription to The Australian to read it in full, so here are the key points:

The trend for mothers returning to work has accelerated in line with higher rates of female education and rising property prices.

This generation of women have jobs worth going back to and the typical mortgage requires two incomes to service.

In the mid 1980s, the majority of mothers in two-parent families waited until their youngest child was three before returning to work.

In the mid 1990s, the benchmark had fallen to two years.

About two-thirds of mothers with jobs are employed part-time while their children are in preschool.

By age three, though, more than half the working mothers are in full-time work. Sole parents are the exception to this pattern.

Most are still at home when the youngest child is aged 4-5.

Do these figures represent your family, and your choices?

If your family part of an Australian trend?

If you are new to Working Mums Australia and interested in more about part-time work, you may be interested in the personal stories of Juliet, Tamara and Kellie, who featured in our series on part time work a while ago.

They shared their stories, choices and influences to help us all work out a way to muddle through this challenging set of decisions 🙂

3 responses to “Breaking news: nearly half of Australian mums back at work before their youngest turns one”

I went back to work soon after my kids were born. I’m a mother but it doesn’t define me. I have worked my way up the corporate ladder, fighting stereotypes along the way and while I miss the kids, I have a career and am damn proud of it!
Lauren

Here here. I went back to full time work when each of my daughters was 4 months old. They are now 7 and 8 and independent, intelligent engaging children who have had a strong support and care network of adults since they were babies which has included Daddy (hey critics most kids have two parents)nanny, granny, daycare and school.